A Florida pastor whose congregation includes Justin Bieber and the Kardashians has been accused of an alleged illicit use of art for his Miami church.
Pastor Rich Wilkerson, of Vous church in Miami, is named in a lawsuit as using the work of street artists such as Typoe, Bikismo and Ahol Sniffs Glue to advertise his church, without their permission. The suit alleges that Wilkerson neither paid for the rights to use the art nor asked permission.
The works were murals for a local state school and were not designed for "a well-funded celebrity church brand or its prosperous pastors," according to TMZ.
The artists say they would have refused permisison, even if they had been asked.
The lawsuit has been filed by Kushnirsky Gerber PLLC of New York. In a statement to Christian Today, lawyer Andrew Gerber said: "One big issue is the mistaken belief that works that are publicly visible or publicly displayed are somehow in the public domain. This is simply incorrect."
Christian Today has reached out to Pastor Wilkerson for comment.
